Thought Pyramid Art Centre Hosts ‘Here And Now’ Art Exhibition

[00:00:00]Let's begin with this collaborative art exhibition titled Here and Now at the Thor Pyramid Art Center in Lagos.

[00:00:09][snorts] [music] A synergy of creative hubs unfolds at Th Pyramid Art Center and the Tribes Art Africa Gallery in Ecoy Lagos as a presenter collaborative group exhibition [music] titled Here and Now, the showcase features about 20 contemporary artists exploring the narrative [music] shaping Africa's future stories of becoming identity, memory, and environment. [snorts] >> It's um [music] examines the um elements of memory, presence, the environment and identity and how it shapes contemporary African [snorts] um art in this present moment. here now has a team um [music] identity. Now I tend to bring out the identity of our cultural heritage. You [music] know like I said as Africans and then as Nigerians we need to push out our identity to the world who we are cuz you cannot see those works outside Africa. Maybe when you see them is an African person that creates those works. So we want to push out our our cultural heritage through our creative way of expressions. [music] My three works basically, in fact, [music] most especially the one in the middle um emphasizes on the theme of the exhibition here and now because you can see the guy is carrying um a lot of fruits and a lot of um three ants are trying to lure him to you know collect the lemons.

[00:02:21]So it's like now you're getting some kind of things that are trying to sway you from um what you already have that is enough. So this is basically what that work is talking about and I I believe it really resonates with the theme of the exhibition. Through painting, material experimentation and symbolic figuration, these artists showcase the weight of inherited histories, personal narratives, and the collective transformation defining contemporary society.

[00:02:52]>> My works um I titled them as a is a is a Euroba word which means um clothe.

[00:03:01]Um my works captures um my cultural heritage as Africans, Nigeria to be precise. So I intend to showcase the world, our cultural heritage as Africans, as Nigerians. So there are so many um culture in Nigeria particularly, but in this particular um exhibition, I I tend to show the Euroba culture. Now, when you look at it, um my works are they don't really have a face. And why?

[00:03:35]It's because I want to remind you that you are from somewhere and you are going somewhere. So you can put yourself in that face that you are saying that doesn't have a face. You can put yourself and okay I'm coming from a cultural background. What do you know about your culture?

[00:03:55]>> My works are based on mental health, human psychology, everything that has to do with the human life. And the works I'm exhibiting today um they're titled My Life is Mine and it is well they they have to do with emotional um instability and stability at the same time.

[00:04:18]>> Impacting the society through art is something that is constant because they tell stories. Individuals are coming with their you know their different stories. For instance, Bella, she talks about um a whole lot when it comes to depression. She's been able to share her experiences and interpret it through her work. And what do you take from there?

[00:04:43]It's not permanent things. Those things are not permanent. Permanent. It talks about um the temporal state of life as it were. Nothing is permanent. There's change, constant change. So the society should see um the essence of change as constant and it will come.

[00:05:04]>> The exhibition asserts that here is never separate from now emphasizing that place, consciousness and time are deeply entangled. It challenges us to reflect on the quiet negotiations between the world around us and our internal experiences. My practice as an artist um basically centers on human um energy and how humans are possess multiple um characteristics. You know as a person as one person you you could be you could be this and you could be that to other people. I could know you as this and I could know you as that and when we get to another place you also still blend in. You you understand?

[00:05:49]So multiplicity in personality. So this is basically what my art speaks about and that as a woman somehow you have another side of you that could feel masculine. The one over there is titled love on me. Everybody deserve to be love and to love you know. Then the one in the middle is titled these lemons are not worth the squeeze. Okay. Then the one over there is titled um the waiting boy. It's describe a face in everybody's life where you have to wait. You don't have a choice but to wait whatever it is. It could be a miracle. It could be you know your expectations and and anything from anybody from from God you know just a waiting season of anybody's life. My works explores um identity, emotions, um culture, human connection and basically anything that makes us human.

[00:06:48]So um this exhibition here and here and now is talking about the present but not just only the present, the past, the present and the future.

[00:06:59]And how um this um three work hand in hand. So is my work. I have three works exhibited here today. um one of them my life my choice the other um still becoming and then um the last one ita of Benin. So um my life my choice firstly it's it shed more light on um the power or how powerful the choices that we make can be. um you me everybody are here today because of the choices individual has made in every uh one part of their life till now. So um it's basically talking about how powerful and um viewers should wait and reflect on the power of the choices that um they they have made or they would make.

[00:07:50]It gives me joy that people like us that are old when we pass on that are younger generation that will continue this thing. It's a very good thing. I am I am my heart is full of joy.

[00:08:04]>> The artists they've been selected from various backgrounds and they've been able to interpret their individual experiences and backgrounds into um conceptualizing the thing and delivering it. So when you come to each painting, you have a different experience at every point in time. Um a particular one for instance is one right behind me by Senolo Chiaka. She talks about um this moment. She talks about waiting. She talks about and she's been able to infuse her own experience into her painting. And so it goes with all of them. There's also the question of background culture. For instance, there's Moses um Bambber. He's a northern um young man and um he's been able to infuse a um the northern culture. He talks about um Derba. He talks about Argongu festival. All of these things shaping his background as a child, as a young man growing up. And then he comes on to [snorts] infuse it into his work of art. So you come what you see is someone presenting identity without a face and yet identity that resonates with every man every woman. So if you go to his painting you look at it and you readily see the different elements and he uses mixed media in his work as well. So at the end of the day, you engage with an experience that leaves you um in a state of wonder and curiosity.

[00:09:40]>> By nurturing talents and supporting innovative practice, these galleries continue to shape the future of African art and encourage meaningful cultural dialogue.

[00:09:56]>> [music]